Clothes-pounder



' N0. 626,658. Patented June 6, I899.

A. c. LEIGH. CLOTHES POUNIDER.

(Application filed Apr. 1, 1899.

2N0 Model.)

r ucnms PETE UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR O. LEIGH, OF DOWS, IOWA.

CLOTHES-.POUNDER.

SPECIFICATION forming. part of Letters Patent No. 626,658, dated June 6, 1899. Application filed April 1, 1899. Serial No. 711,391. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

' durable device adapted to be advantageously operated by hand in a tub for forcing air and water through the meshes of articles of clothing and all kinds of woven fabrics to remove dirt therefrom.

My invention consists in the implement constructed and adapted to be operated as hereinafter set fort-h, pointed out in my claim, and illustrated. in the accompanying drawings, in which I Figure 1 is a sectional view of the device, showing transverse bracing-partitions and open-ended tubes supporting the-partitions. Fig. 2 is abottom view of the device. Fig. 3 is a modification of Fig. 1, showing a checkvalve at a point below the bottom of a solid wooden handle.

The letter A designates the central body portion of the device in the form of a sheetmetal cylinder, and B the top portion in the shape of a cone that terminates in a screwthreaded socket G for a handle.

D is a hollow frustum fixed to the bottom of the cylinder A.

F is a partition fixed at the junction of cylinder A and top 13, and F is a corresponding partition fixed at the junction of the bottom of the cylinder and the top of the frustum.

Fixed vertical partitions II divide the hollow frustuin into four distinct open-bottomed chambers, and each chamber communicates .with the chamber in the top B bymeans of an open-topped tube J, fixed in the partitions F and F in such a manner that air can pass down through the tubes in the chambers in the frustum.

K is a wooden handle fitted in the socket O, to be detachably connected with the top of the device, and is provided with a bore m and a valve m at the bottom of the bore to admit air into the hollow top 13.

In Fig. 3 a solid handle is used and a valve attached inside of the wall of the part B and over a vent in the wall.

In the practical use of my invention thus constructed when clothing is placed in a tub to be washed in hot soapsuds to submerge the articles I simply press and-pound the goods by seizing the handle and movingthe complete device up and down and about in the tub, so that the bottom edges of the walls of the four distinct chambers in the frustum will at each downward motion engage and press the flexible fabrics to be washed, and air and water will be forced through the meshes of the articles. At each upward motion air will be admitted into the hollow top portion of the device, and at each downward motion the check-valve will close and the confined air will be compressed and a portion thereof forced down through each tube into a chamher in the frustum to press upon the water that has risen into the chambers, so that air and water will be simultaneously forced through the textile fabrics that are thus successively pressed, as required, to loosen and remove dirt therefrom.

Having thus described my invention, its operation and utility will be readily understood by persons familiar with the art to which it pertains, and

What I therefore claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent therefor, is-

A clothes-pounder, comprising a cylinder, a hollow cone at the top of the cylinder terminating in a socket for a handle, a wooden handle fitted in the socket and provided with a bore to admit air, and a check-valve to prevent air passing upward through the bore, a frustum fixed to the bottom of the cylinder and divided into distinct open bottomed chambers, a transverse partition at the junction of the cylinder and hollow cone-shaped top, a partition at the junction of the cylinder and the frustum and open-ended tubes fixed in the said transverse partitions, all arranged and combined as shown and described to operate in the mannerset forth for the pur- .poses stated. v

, ARTHUR c. LEIGH. 

